Is WWE Losing Steam To Close Out 2018?

Monday Night’s edition of Raw featured some new stars to close the show, further extending the momentum for superstars such as Bobby Lashley and Drew McIntyre. Their alliance with General Manager “elect” Baron Corbin has provided a new heel stable at the top of the Raw brand while Braun Strowman sits out with an elbow injury.

WWE has listened to fans with the “wanting to see new stars” argument, however, it is falling flatter than truck stop flapjacks.

This is not the fault of McIntyre, Corbin or Lashley.

It’s creative.

It took the injury to Roman Reigns to put WWE’s creative team’s plans in shambles. What did that result in? Brock Lesnar getting the Universal Title and seemingly pointless story telling. Elias and Finn Balor are being repeatedly fed to the wolves while Seth Rollins finds himself with Dean Ambrose, preventing him from entering that main event story line for the mean time.

The writing on the wall was there at the conclusion of Survivor Series. Yes, you have stars such as Becky Lynch and Braun Strowman proving their worth, but they also have gone down to hard luck injuries. Outside of their importance to the Survivor Series show (Lynch wasn’t even on the card, although her injury forced her off of it), Survivor Series pretty much was a four hour dud. Ronda Rousey vs. Charlotte and Daniel Bryan vs. Brock Lesnar were the only decent matches. Everything else fell victim to the domino effect. When you put so much effort into one character such as Roman Reigns, the rest suffers when he isn’t around. It actually further implements the theory that WWE NEEDS Reigns.

Plenty of fans prior to Reigns’ leukemia diagnosis would have vehemently disagreed with that statement. Fast Forward only a month or so and look at what Raw produced on Monday.

Those same fans are eating their words.

I will not deny I was tired of Reigns’ super hero credibility, but there is no arguing he is the main event whenever he walks into an arena. WWE did a great job getting him to that point, but their lack of focus on anyone else has been detrimental and it shows. Rumor is Seth Rollins is the scheduled opponent for Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania and that is all well and good, but unless there is some type of riveting story line that leads to Rollins emerging triumphant, it’s just going to start a new season of frustrating story lines with a champion who rarely shows up.

The Smackdown brand even with their poor showing at Survivor Series in the pre determined matches, is in much better shape from a roster standpoint.

There is a lot more creativity and more story line advancement on Smackdown (excluding the 9,000 losses in a row for Samoa Joe against AJ Styles) this year and folks at FOX must be happy seeing that, especially since the media conglomerate has nearly a billion dollars invested in the brand beginning in 2019.

However, Smackdown is also in the same type of funk as Raw from a content standpoint lately.

Samoa Joe as I stated previously has been beaten more than the Cleveland Browns this decade and the brand has destroyed Asuka. She is essentially a jobber in the women’s division who has been added to the Smackdown Women’s Title match at TLC and will most likely not be victorious, just added for fluff. Let’s add the questionable Daniel Bryan heel turn and Shane McMahon World Cup win. We have ourselves a complete mess on the Smackdown brand until Becky Lynch returns from injury. That will be at TLC when she defends her title in a triple threat match.

Even then, there is just so much disarray regardless of the return of The Man.

How many times can we see New Day and The Bar clash?

When will Nakamura be involved in anything important as U.S. Champ?

As I said, Smackdown is equally as in trouble as Raw but with better potential upside thanks to Lynch. This puts WWE in a monster bind heading into the beginning of 2019.

How do they book the Royal Rumble at Chase Field in Arizona? The rumble is often the event that helps set the tone for WrestleMania season, it sure as heck starts it off.

I remember a similar situation a few years back (2015 into 2016) for WWE when Roman Reigns and Sheamus were feuding over the WWE title. Everything was just a complete mess and the booking of the heels was a lot more expansive than the faces. Seth Rollins went down to injury and it became crisis mode when he had to forfeit the title. New Day and League of Nations bonded to destroy Roman Reigns. Triple H returned to the ring to win the title in the rumble thanks to repetitive help from the McMahon’s and League of Nations. Emergency on the fly booking made the end of 2015 all the way until WrestleMania 32 a completely forgettable time for the company. The positive this time around unlike in 15′-16′ is the fact there are a lot more healthy stars who can pull the weight if given the opportunity to with good story lines. Plus, a Women’s division that will almost certainly be the focal point of WrestleMania 35, specifically Ronda Rousey and Becky Lynch. It could even consist of the Four Horsewomen of UFC vs. Four Horsewomen of WWE showdown, which is the money making main event that any prior year could never even have been fathomed.

All hope isn’t lost, it’s up to WWE to right the ship and use this recent string of injuries and bad luck as a lesson.